1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to telecommunications and, more specifically, to associating actions on a phone with phone numbers.
2. Description of the Background Art
It is often desirable to perform an automated action in response to a user making a call on a phone, especially when the call is to a business. For instance, when a user dials a phone number for a business, it may be desirable to play a promotion to the user related to the business. Also, when a user dials a customer care center, it is often desirable to provide the user with automated self-service options. In known systems, a user can be played a promotion or provided with self-service options once a user calls into an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system.
In some cases, using the IVR system to provide such automated information/services has several disadvantages. First, an IVR system provides the user with promotions, self-service options, or other actions only by a voice interface. For some interactions, it is often more effective to provide the user with information via a graphical interface (or via both a graphical and voice interface). Second, when a user is connected to an IVR system, the user is consuming IVR system resources. The more IVR resources consumed, the larger and more costly the IVR system is. Third, the action taken is controlled by the owner or operator of the IVR system. In the case of playing a promotion to a user, this means that the promotions that are played are usually promotions associated or approved by the party that owns or controls the IVR system (e.g., the airline that owns the 1-800 number dialed by the user). In such case, it is not possible for a competitor to pay for a promotion to be played when a user dials a phone number for a competing business.
Therefore, it would be desirable to “intercept” calls to certain numbers before they are placed, and perform certain automated actions on the phone, where examples of such action include providing self-service customer care options, playing a promotion, or providing a user with the option to download a software application. There are software applications for phones that provide user's with technical assistance information (i.e., troubleshooting), but such software application are not triggered upon the user initiating a call. Rather, the user must take the initiative to open and use such applications.